"Somebody, quick... watch for flying pigs!"
-hubby

Baby Bear slept in until almost 8:00 this morning. But that was not the cause for astonishment. As hubby began his day of working on reports in the guest room/office, and I tossed and turned, I was fully awakened by the sound of a bulldozer, shovels, & a saw outside our window. I know it is not normal to be excited about hearing such sounds at 7:45 a.m. It might be a little bit crazy. But elections are in 2 days, and I suspect our city councilman wants our vote and put some pressure somewhere. And by golly, now that hades has frozen over and pigs are flying in 90-degree weather, leading us to the beginning of a retaining wall on the side of our property, well, I just might go out and vote on Thursday. I suppose I should vote for Mayor while I'm at it.

So, this
at our house is actually being done by a team of workers, but it took effort on my part to find someone to listen to us. After 4 years of my requests being put off by the developer it appears we are finally getting somewhere with the help of the city councilman and public works department. Our yard may not wash off the hill after the next rainstorm after all. (For those of you who are new around here, the cliff was not so bad when we moved in. It was sloped nicely. After we closed, they tore up that side of our lot to put in a sidewalk part of the way down. Almost a year ago, they tore it up further to extend the sidewalk, and left it as an even worse safety hazard and eyesore.)

Please pray that in the steepest part, the wall is high enough to make it safe for hubby to mow the back corner of our lot without twisting his ankle or falling and braking his neck. Right now they are saying the retaining wall will be 4 feet at its highest point... I'm not convinced that will make the situation better on that part of the cliff, but I am far from a landscape design expert. They are actually beginning the wall further toward the front yard than we expected... no complaints about that!

Here are the "before" pics:




"After" pics to come. Or maybe some "during" pics when they take a break. I don't think the workers would appreciate having their photo taken in their sweaty grandeur.

As for my Tackle? The usual housework. I need to fold all the laundry that was washed yesterday. Maybe I'll try to see if there are any swimsuits on clearance at Kohl's or the mall department stores. Oh, and I should really make a list of everything I need to pack for our upcoming family vacation.

Happy Tackles!

2:15 p.m.- Other than their lunch break/siesta on the neighbor's gently sloped yard, the workers have been very busy. The frame/support for where the wall will be poured is coming along. Granted, it looks worse in some ways because that's just how the process goes, but once we have the wall, with somewhat stable ground to work with, we might possibly be able to put in shrubs or a fence or something so nobody dies falling off our yard. Until this point, we were very limited, and we didn't appreciate having the developer tear into the corner lot (which we paid a premium for because it was supposed to be a good lot).

Please pardon my run on sentences. I'm going to fold laundry now.

Here are the "during" pictures...





please, God, let the slope at least be mowable when they are done filling in the dirt....

updated 5:26 p.m.